HANC ignores eviction notice — again

For sheer hubris, you have to hand it to the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council. The group has been operating its recycling plant at Golden Gate Park without a lease since 2001, and the city’s Recreation and Park Department served HANC with an eviction notice months ago, and ordered them to be out by Aug. 31.

HANC’s response has been simple — they put their hands over their ears and chanted, “La-la-la-la, we can’t hear you.”

There have been legal challenges, delays, and stall tactics. The latest, however, is admirable for its audacity.

HANC is handing out fliers in the neighborhood inviting everyone to stop by on Saturday for a “presentation of the new look” of the site. What that means, say Rec and Park officials, is that they have put down a few garden beds and are calling it a community garden — with the lucrative recycling facility still in place of course.

“It is nothing but a stunt,” said department spokeswoman Sarah Ballard. “HANC has been ignoring the wishes of its neighbors for over 20 years.”

The story behind the story, critics of the recycling center say, is that HANC is hoping to stall the eviction until January 2012, in hopes that the new administration elected in November will be less likely to close the facility.

Until then, as Rec and Park executive director Phil Ginsburg wrote in a letter to them, “HANC appears to act as though it owns the leased premises and can do what it wants without the consent or involvement of the department.”